Facilitating Change

Facilitating change was a wonderful class, as it talked about companies identifying and embracing change in the digital era. The change could be a minor or major and can be done in three ways; structural, rational and emotional. It is no secret that a lot of companies avoid change because it is said to be expensive, especially that of structural change but these may be due to other factors such as culture, pricing, P& L and ROI.

Companies that remained in their comfort zones have experienced a toll on their sales and operations. For example, companies such as Nokia and Blackberry were caught in this mess and seen presumably trying to catch up with its competitors and other companies that embraced the change.  Organisations therefore need to identify their hurdles and make systematic changes in the organisation in little or big ways.

With the rise of disruption, companies now rearrange things differently and this makes them want to hustle more. Companies need to stay curious and apply research and development to their businesses. On the other hand, companies need to avoid toxic or heuristic actions, for instance, sponsoring a music band that the MD personally likes. Companies need to assess, the use of sponsorship or social media to the overall company strategy and its goals.

As a whole, we are encouraged to facilitate and embrace changes that will set companies apart from others or revolutionize the industry and little changes that start with our organisation, maybe a great business idea or client proposal that will connect companies with their consumers in an impactful way.

Think Optimized

Optimization is very important to a brand and is used to attain the organizations goals in line with its objectives. Optimization gives data, insights and digital direction, using tools such as Google analytics brands can find out how to use data and insights to direct its digital actions.  In other words optimization will aid an organisations digital presence in a constructive and data driven way. Data will help analyse and identify marketing gaps and opportunities to inform effective strategy development. It creates brand awareness by increasing visibility in relevant areas, content structure, marketing, etc. Digital marketing is an ongoing revolution, that has led to vast data on the world wide web, marketing, research, display advertising, real-time data, key word searches and so on.  Brands compete with the information they have gathered from consumers through different forms of research or testing on the web.

In addition, digital marketing inventions such as search engine optimization, Adwords, keyword campaigns, display advertising, banner ads, pay per click, pay per month, real-time discussions, live chats, google analytics and others have helped to target and re target a brands target audience and generate new leads. Brands can now leverage on the online ad agencies and google display network to reach their target audience globally.  To illustrate, key word searches are created and used to narrow down searches and target the relevant audience, live chats are used by businesses in customer service and real-time discussions are used to interact with consumers online to create a bond with the brand. For instance, Dove soap started a discussion on what beauty means to customers, asking them to send in photos and videos on the mentioned topic. This got people talking and they were able to interact. 

Optimization allows brands to utilize their data on location, traffic sources, mobile reporting, adwords, multi- channel analytics, landing pages, referrals, page visits and bounce rate for content and high impact marketing purposes,  thereby identifying marketing gaps and opportunities that will inform on future types of campaigns, where to improve on and successful measuring metrics . 

As a whole, optimization allows brands to test and keep testing landing sites or pages; high traffic sources,  give recommendations and strategic directions/ improvements for the brand in line with the objectives.

DATA

Consumers give out different data on a daily basis, data such as, consumer name, age, email and address.  Data is essential to all transactions and can be gathered through various sources, for instance SEO, Websites, email, display, CRM, PPC, social media, affiliates, mobile devices and apps.

In recent times companies will agreed that Data is more manageable especially in the digital era that gives instant and real time data. Data aids adequate planning and executions of campaigns and projects. From data one can tell which part of a campaign is working, where to improve and the relevant content to provide.  Content, personal identity and behaviour are valuable data because they provide the what, when, where and device; Demographics and Psychographics; actions and preferences.

Data can be gotten using a number of tools such as, online surveys, competitor analysis, user testing, monitoring, optimization, marketing attribution, marketing attribution, page heatmaps, mobile analytics, and tag management to mention but few. Data provides relevant insights such as brand audience data, traffic sources, user journeys, real-time insights and context.  Data may also identify gaps or present new opportunities for the brand. This will ultimately influence product use or purchase and gain insights that make the brand more engaging and identify the various multi- channel touch points. Touch points such as TV, microsites, documentaries, blogs, digital, experiential, print or social media platforms.

With data insights new ideas can be generated. For instance, Olay gathered lots of information from social media, such as its Share of voice at 2.4%, type of coverage; appearance on blogs and twitter; and sentiments like good product reviews for moisturising and anti-aging. This gave Olay valuable insights that sparked content on two topics and Olay was able to utilize these insights by creating discussions around age defying and anti-aging skincare. These discussions were influenced by blogs such as Technorati and wefollow. Olay also had two brand ambassadors to influence consumers and promote the brand, these were- Jessica Ennis for prevention and Thandi Newton for reduction.

As a whole, brands have to turn data into action, to keep consumers on their brands, create interaction and engage consumers to ultimately make a sale. 

The Customer Journey

The customer journey has to do with the path to purchase. By this we mean all the various touch points considered or used by consumers before a purchase is made. Digital has changed the way people purchase, sell, approve, disapprove and general business operations. Customers go through different touch points or paths when making a purchase and the user experience may vary from consumer to consumer or from product to product. An example of a user experience for a phone purchase could be online research- compare- reviews- in store - purchase and another user experience could be reviews- research- online purchase.

Customer journeys are mainly categorized into impulse, habitual and research depending on the way and product we are buying. Impulse buying is unplanned, on things such as on gum, sweets or toothpaste and is deemed a low risk purchase or not a waste of money. 

While, habitual buying is on brands consumers have already bought into, and may not care about. These are products on the consumer list of purchase but can be substituted because the consumer knows what to expect from the product. To illustrate, a customer may switch Nescafe for Keno coffee when making a purchase.

Research purchase is used when spending large amounts of money. For instance, houses, holidays, electronics or cars. A customer journey also varies by time frame, for instance wanting to buy a car in a couple of months may change when the time arrives, Customers may want a deal car instead or the sales man may change their minds, etc. Therefore, for effective marketing, Brands need to understand the customer journey and time frames they operate on. These journeys are shaped by 5 drivers: Contacts, Consumer, Culture, Category and Context. Contacts- Consideration touch, RS touch points, final decision, Purchase point.

In consumers attitudes, the traditional marketing funnel includes- Awareness, familiarity, consideration, purchase, loyalty. However digital marketing has reshaped the journey and before digital marketing we listen to peer reviews and conduct research, but with digital marketing customers go to trip advisor, booking.com, and lastminute.com to view reviews from people they don’t know, browsing through good and bad reviews. Consumers use multi-channel journeys, for instance, TV, Online, print media, friends & family, brick & mortar stores to make a purchase. 

The shopper just wants to buy the best product, so brands need to understand the customer journey to effectively relate with its consumers on all marketing platforms.

Social Purpose 2: ARGOS

Argos is a unique multi-channel retail organisation recognized for choice, value and convenience. The organisation deals with general merchandising and products for homes through numerous stores, online and telephone sales. The social purpose is to provide consumers with a range of value household products and value added services at affordable prices. Argos social strategy is to be fun for all and all for fun. Argos employs the use of digital marketing and traditional media to sell their products and services to consumers and increase bottom-line sales. The organisations products are tagged "great value products" as seen on their social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, corporate website, mobile apps on Iphone and android. Hence consumers are not found wanting and can shop anywhere at their convenience, on the go or at home. This is convenient has filled the need of so many consumers such as a)the busy executive, the stay at home mom, students and children. 

The social purpose/ strategy has proved effective in the social media employed by the organisation on the above mentioned platforms and can be seen by the number of followers, likes, shares, re-tweets or mentions, downloads to mention a few. Earlier this week, Argos had the following stats on social media; followers/subscribers on Facebook 834K,  Twitter 78.3K, Youtube 12,476, Google + 26,052. This shows that their social purpose/strategy has been effective over the years.

Social Purpose

Having a social purpose and strategy that ties into the overall organisations objective is a core driving force behind a brands digital or online presence. A social purpose is what the brand will provide, where it fits into the lives of its consumers needs or challenges. The social purpose is simply the reasoning or purpose behind the brand,for example the mission statement of the organisation embedded into all the organisations activities. For instance Nike brand purpose is very clear, to make everyone and Athlete. 

Brands engage with a social strategy and this is used to engage the consumer through various tactics and web tools such as, corporate website, blogs, apps and other social media platforms. This gives the brand and consumers mutual benefits such as, the former receives complaints, product feedback, brand awareness, product insights and loyalty. On the other hand, the consumers can rant, interact, enquire and express concerns on the brands products or services. Not having an online presence or a social strategy may be considered as a lack of concern for consumers and will ultimately lead to sadness and anger of the consumers towards the brand.

Furthermore,  the main objective of the social purpose/strategy for brands is to increase sales and generate brand awareness through social media. Once a social strategy is in place a brand can easily decide to embed its purpose into all its social gimmicks to increase the bottom-line sales and measure social media effects or success through likes, mentions, shares, comments and views.

However, some brands opt not to engage in the use of social media for a number of reasons such as a lack of budget, resources, skilled personnel,  poor management and evaluation cost.  Sometimes, it could be that the management does not feel the need for social media or questions its effectiveness on a brand. This can have a damaging effect on the brand in the long run.

Blogging: Video & Digital

Blogging is generally an online journal used to share ideas, concepts, reflections, products, services and what not. It is a tool used by individuals, company or brands to reach different audiences, and is done in creative ways such as blogs, videos or Vlogs and blogging with so many websites and CMS systems available to users to share ideas in a common market place. Websites such as blogspot, wordpress, tumblr and youtube are very popular for these purposes. This has fashioned the market trends used by many brands such as Apple, Samsung  and Nokia to mention but few. Marketing has taken a different platform through digital or online presence and consumer interaction doing what can be seen and heard or experienced and felt.

Digital platforms have far reaching impacts on its audience and appears more engaging to the consumers. Agencies should encourage their clients to maintain an online presence that will engage consumers more socially, not just marketing alone. A good example will be #Dove beauty campaign #whatbeautymeanstoyou that has people interacting with the brand by making their own videos and sharing online. It has the consumer talking, increasing brand awareness and giving product feedback, all at once.

These are generally the benefits of blogging, and this should be utilized by brands and consumers to stimulate thoughts and perceptions, exchange ideas and for marketing purposes.